The American youngsters earned spots in the main draw for the season's first major, Jan. 14-27 in Melbourne, at the Australian Open Wild Card Playoffs on Sunday in Norcross, Ga.

Keys, 17, of Rock Island, Ill., defeated Mallory Burdette, 21, of Jackson, Ga., 7-5, 6-3 in the final to win this event for the second year in a row.

"I'm pretty happy with how I've been doing and how I've been playing. Hopefully I can just really keep it up now," said Keys, who fell to Jie Zheng in the first round of the 2012 Australian Open, 6-2, 6-1. "It'd be great to go to Australia and not get killed in the first round this year. Hopefully that happens. But I'm just really excited to go down and start playing some tournaments again."

"I'm moving incredibly well, and when I'm moving my best I feel like I give myself a really good chance of winning, and I feel like I could play with anyone," said the 190th-ranked Williams, who will play in his second straight Grand Slam after qualifying and reaching the first round of the US Open this summer.

"Tim, he's been playing incredible to end the year. He beat me the last two times, and I woke up this morning and just told myself I was going to try to give myself the best chance to win," Williams added. "Everything just kind of came together, and I played some of the best tennis I've ever played."

Keys earns her second main-draw entry into the season's first major, and Williams earns his first.

The Australian open Wild Card Playoff featured eight men and eight women.